Classrooms and teaching labs were emptied in late Spring 2020 because of public health measures to counter COVID-19. In response to a call for papers in April by the leading journal in chemical education, the ACS Journal of Chemical Education, chemistry educators from around the world chronicled their response to rapid changes in teaching modalities that resulted from the disruption associated with this global pandemic in a special issue, “Insights Gained While Teaching Chemistry in the Time of COVID-19.” Two groups of our faculty contributed to this endeavor of sharing experiences, innovations, and best practices.

In “Teaching Chemistry in the Time of COVID-19: Memories and the Classroom,” Assistant Professor in Residence J. Dafhne Aguirre and Associate Professor in Residence Fatma Selampinar detailed their experiences teaching general chemistry in the time of COVID-19. The publication compares the challenges, teaching strategies, laboratory methods, and discussion methods used by two different instructors teaching a three-semester chemistry course. (Read full publication)

Assistant Professor in Residence Kiet Tran, Lecturer Anwar Beshir, and Lecturer Abhay Vaze presented in “A Tale of Two Lab Courses: An Account and Reflection on the Teaching Challenges Experienced by Organic and Analytical Chemistry Laboratories During the COVID-19 Period” four shared challenges in the transition to the online format: experimental implementation, assessments and postlab activities, technological inequalities, and synchronization of student attendance. (Read full publication)